Looks To The Future

See What Out Of This World Love Does

11.1.26 [1 John 3:1-3] River of Life (All Saints Day)

To you who have been called children of God, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace, and love are yours in abundance. Amen.

This week, the Milwaukee Brewers did what few thought possible. They won the World Series. They were a championship team filled with compelling stories. They’d never won a World Series in their 57-year history. They’re a small-market team, nearly in the bottom third in what they spent putting together a roster. They had only two all-stars. 

Those are compelling stories, but they weren’t the driving narrative for the Brewers in their playoff run. Rather, it was all about Ueck. Bob Uecker, the long-time Brewers play-by-play announcer, affectionately known as Mr. Baseball. After each series, the Brewers manager would read a message for the team from Ueck. Only thing is, Bob Uecker died in early 2025. Yet, game after game, and series after series, the manager, the players, and the fans were all talking about Bob Uecker. What he was thinking. What he was watching. What he’d be saying. Even giving him credit for things that happened in the game. 

Baseball has invented all kinds of strange superstitions, but not this one. This came from outside the game. 

And you hear it all the time. People talk about their loved ones who have passed in present terms. I just know he’s smiling at us right now. She’s with us in spirit. There’s a real tenderness there. We love these individuals now, even though they are not with us as they once were. We think about them on birthdays, anniversaries, & festive moments. We reminisce about them even on regular days. When we hear, see, or smell something that reminds us of them. We go to their favorite place. We make their favorite meal. We repeat their favorite phrases. 

Because we love them, we long to still connect with them. That’s where those ideas about loved ones looking down on us come from. 

But here, dear Christian, we must be careful. The Bible doesn’t say that our loved ones are looking down on our lives. It doesn’t say that their spirits dwell among us. The closest it gets to hinting at such an idea is in Revelation 6, when the martyrs cry out: Rev. 6:9 How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? Hardly sounds like smiling, right? 

But there is a love that binds us with all believers. And there is a seeing to look forward to. That’s what John reminds us of. 

John, who spent years seeing Jesus face-to-face and saw him in his glorified flesh after his resurrection, wants us to know why we are loved, when we will be changed and also see our Savior face-to-face, and that we should live like we are loved and we will be changed. 

John begins with the fact that we are loved. 1 Jn. 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! Now you can hear the smiling, can’t you? But what John writes here is bursting with even more joy than what we might first catch. 

When John says See! He is imploring us to take a deeper look. We might better capture his thought with words like investigate, inspect, or explore. The Apostle John wants you to do a deep dive into the Father’s love. 

What moved God to make you his child? His love, not your loveliness. His grace, not your goodness. His mercy, not your merit. When we were powerless, God used his power to become our servant and our substitute. When we were his enemies, hating everything he thought, said, did, and stood for, God so loved us that he sent his one and only Son. When we were unholy and ungodly, God became flesh and blood, true man, and paid for our sins by suffering and dying on the cross. Rom. 5:8 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Why does John want us to meditate on the great love the Father has lavished upon us? Two reasons. 

First, he wants us to recognize that this is not how this world works. People do not love their enemies sacrificially. People are not devoted to those who despise them. People do not show compassion to those who regard them with contempt. This lavish love is out of this world. 

Secondly, children tend to have a poor perspective on all that their parents have done and continue to do for them. Some of that is because they just can’t know all that comes with being a parent. Some of that is because they just don’t spend much time thinking about all that their parents do. And some of that is because they have an inflated sense of how good they are and how easy they are to love. It isn’t until we grow older that we begin to realize all that our parents have done for us. All the silver hairs that were generated by our selfishness. It isn’t until we mature that we begin to really appreciate their sacrificial love. 

That’s a struggle for us as God’s children, too. Our heavenly Father doesn’t expect us to understand all that he does as the Sovereign Lord. But God does want us to ponder his wondrous love. He does want us to really examine our hearts and lives. 

God has made us his children, but that doesn’t always mean that, as his children, we have made him proud. Our pride, our petulance, our impatience, our incessant self-absorption insult our loving Father. 

We are simultaneously demanding and dismissive of his demands. We are conceited. More aggrieved by those who sin against us than we are by our own sins against our heavenly Father. We are so blessed, but still so covetous and envious. We are loved by a Father who only ever speaks truthfully to us, yet we mock him with our lies and deceit. When we do what is right—and only because it benefits us—we smugly act as if we are doing him a favor! We do not deserve to be his children, because, far too often, we live like the world that does not know him as their Father. 

Yet, our Father is exceedingly forbearing. He is kind and patient. As our good Father, he sits down with us and flips through the photo album of his mercy. He has not punished us as our sins deserve. He has disciplined us. It wasn’t pleasant at the time. No discipline is! But it was an expression of his marvelous wisdom and his gentle love. He firmly and frequently calls us to repentance. He warns us of the ultimate consequences of wickedness and sin. He implores us to turn to him. And he promises his forgiveness, mercy, and eternal love.

The hope we have is that God continues to lavish his love upon us as a faithful Father. This is how we are purified, as Christ is pure. God the Father has made us children when he washed us and claimed us in the waters of Baptism. He has united us to himself and made Christ our Savior and our Brother. And one day, we will be like him. We will be made holy through and through. One day we will no longer fight a daily battle against our sinful nature. One day, we will no longer be prideful or petulant, impatient or incessantly self-absorbed. One day, we will be like him. That change will happen because of our Father’s lavish love.  

John’s hopes soar as he tells us of that transformation. 1 Jn. 3:2 When Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We, with all the saints in heaven, look forward to this day. On the Last Day, Christ will come to answer the cry of the martyrs. He will ensure that justice is served and his people are saved. On that Day, we will be made like him—gifted with glorified flesh and blood. And we will see him with our own eyes. How our hearts yearn for that blessed day!

That is the certain hope that we have as children of God. We know that we are loved by God. We know that we will be changed by God. 

So with this hope—knowing that we are loved, and knowing that we will be changed—we ought to live like we are loved and will be changed. That is what a saint is! Someone who lives with this hope. 

The Scriptures are filled with the stories of saints like these. People who had this hope. Having this hope, Noah built an ark according to God’s command. He preached boldly, condemning the world for its wickedness. He preached compassionately, imploring them to turn to God and repent of their sins. 

Having this hope, Moses’ mother hid him for three months despite the Pharaoh’s edict to throw baby boys into the Nile River. Having this hope, Rahab welcomed Israelite spies into her home. She knew the Lord God was the God of heaven above and earth below. But she also trusted in his kindness & mercy and looked to him for salvation.

You probably have your own stories of saints who have had this hope. Stories of ordinary individuals who knew the lavish love of the Father. They trusted in his lavish love as they endured hardships & challenges. They trusted in his lavish love as they battled cancer and buried loved ones. They trusted in his lavish love as they forgave people who didn’t deserve it and were patient with people whom others had given up on. They studied Scripture diligently. They prayed fervently. They gave selflessly. They didn’t make headlines. They weren’t movers or shakers. They were content to be called children of God. They knew they were sinners by nature. They knew they were saints, by God’s grace. 

And so, too, are you. You know the lavish love of the Father, at least in part. You know he has promised to conform you to the image of his Son, your dear Christ Jesus. You know you will see him as he is, face-to-face. And your Father has given you one more gift. He has gifted you a family of believers. Saints who have gone before you, who are testaments to God’s patience, mercy, and forgiveness. Saints who have walked narrow roads and faced unthinkable challenges in the strength that God has provided. Saints who have suffered for the sake of his name and have not given up the faith. Saints who have courageously walked through the valley of the shadow of death because they knew the Lord was their Shepherd through it all. Dear friends, they did this because that is what God does for and through his children. And that is what we are! Amen.